An Australian cricket writer, covering the Ashes in England, was billed an outlandish figure for one beer.

Drinking outside the four walls of your house has steadily become an expensive proposition all over the world. However, not even in your wildest dreams would you imagine paying a six-figure sum for one drink. Unfortunately for one Australian cricket writer, having a beer in a Manchester hotel turned into a nightmare when he was mistakenly charged an obscene amount. Peter Lalor, who is a cricket writer for The Australian, took to Twitter to reveal that he was charged 99,983.64 Australian dollars (AUD) in the Malmaison Hotel, Manchester, for one beer. Worse, he only realised it after he had already paid.

Attaching a picture of the beer he drank, Lalor wrote: "See this beer? That is the most expensive beer in history. I paid $99,983.64 for it in the Malmaison Hotel, Manchester the other night. Seriously."

"It's a good beer. The original version of it won a heap of awards, including the Supreme Champion Beer of Britain, but if you are thinking that no beer is worth the best part of $100,000, then I am inclined to agree with you."

The beer in question costs 5.50 pounds (AUD 9.91), according to the BBC.

It's a good beer. The original version of it won a heap of awards, including the Supreme Champion Beer of Britain, but if you are thinking that no beer is worth the best part of $100,000, then I am inclined to agree with you.

Lalor said that he didn't have his reading glasses with him when he was given the bill for the beer.

"Something, however, made me ask 'how much did I just pay for that beer'. She (the bartender) checked, covered her mouth, started to giggle and refused to tell me, saying only there had been a mistake and she would fix it. I insisted," said the Australian writer.

He said he would get the senior bar attendant. She suggested Heineken, so I knew she had no idea what she was talking about. Just quietly, it annoys me a bit when people show no interest in their job, but I persisted politely and opted for the very English IPA pictured above.

Then came the call from home. The sum of $99,983.64 had been removed from our account.
And, there'd been a transaction fee of $2,499.59 to add to the pain.
The fee has been refunded but not the larger amount.

According to the BBC, a hotel spokesman said: "We are currently carrying out an investigation into what took place. We have been in contact with Peter to apologise and ensure this has been resolved as quickly as possible."